With the Louisville Cardinals in town this weekend to play the Syracuse Orange at the Carrier Dome (see one of today's other two blog submissions), the minds of those of certain ages, wander back to another UofL club.

To the 1983 edition. To the Doctors of Dunk. To the Cardinals who took part in the most spectacular college basketball ever played.

Uh huh. I'm strolling down Memory Lane here and I'm peeking even now at the famous Final Four affair, in the semis, between Louisville and Houston's Phi Slamma Jamma.

The Cardinals had the Brothers McCray (Rodney and Scooter) and Lancaster Gordon and Milt Wagner and Charles Jones. The Cougars had Akeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler and Benny Anders and Larry Micheaux and Michael Young. And a basketball apocalypse was on.

"We figure," said Olajuwon before the game, "the team with the most dunks will win."

Well, he was right because the Phi Slamma Jamma boys had 14 of them and the Doctors of Dunk had six -- 20 jams in all . . . 20 in 40 minutes! -- and Houston won, 94-81.

Amazingly, at one time during the assault, the Cardinals led, 57-49 . . . but in a stunning 3 1/2-minute stretch, the Cougars went on a 17-1 run that included six devastating dunks in a row to take a 66-58 lead. Ball game over. And how could it not be? Houston ended up scoring 58 points in the second half alone.

And, oh, the majesty of that mayhem.

"When you were under the basket as the referee, you thought you were in London for the Blitzkrieg," said Hank Nichols, one of the officials that day. "We were running to get out of the way."

Olajuwon ended his two-game Final Four with 41 points and 40 rebounds, he crashed through the Louisville defense for four dunks down the stretch alone and he left a lot of mouths agape.